Who We Are

City Baptist Church began on October 14, 2012, in Hoboken, NJ. Three weeks later, God allowed our church to be tested when Hurricane Sandy pounded the region. Hoboken was devastated when ocean water flooded out entire blocks, including our newly renovated building. Pastor Philip Rizzo never lost his God-given vision, and has since led the church to stability. City Baptist is now a grounded young church that is growing both spiritually and numerically.

Our Purpose

We believe that God continues to bless those who give themselves to Him: “Give and it shall be given unto you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over shall men give into your bosom.” This annual church pioneering conference is an expression of worship by our church. We are seeking to glorify God by supporting new church-plants which will spread the gospel in the Northeast. We pray that the Lord will use this conference by moving pastor’s of established churches to provide for the needs of more men who are called to serve in this needy area.

My Vision

Let me preface this section by making one thing clear; I am not against church-planters traveling on deputation to raise support. You might wonder why I started off by saying that, but keep reading and you’ll understand. Being a church-planter myself I did my fair share of traveling before starting City Baptist Church. We have churches that support us from Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Maryland, Florida, California, Texas, Oklahoma, etc... you get the point. By God’s grace, we raised just over $3,000 a month while zig-zagging across the country for a year and a half. We have been in churches that were large and small, young and old, rich and poor. We were also in churches that were well-run and others that were not. God used those 18 months to refine our vision for planting City Baptist Church and allowed us to gain the greatest asset: prayer support.

October 2018 marked the 6-year anniversary of our church plant here in Hoboken. And as I look back at deputation now, it seems that its primary objective, financial support, was the area in which it was the least efficient. Let me say again, I am grateful for the monthly support we DID raise. But it took 18 months to raise about $36,000 per year. That means that for every 40-hour work week we were on deputation, we raised only $11.54 per hour (MINUS travel expenses for a family of six). Think about that for a few minutes.....

In my experience the most efficient fund-raising for domestic church-planters of today is Church Planting Conferences. It’s important to know that there are other conferences around the country in New York State, Oklahoma, Colorado, and Missouri that have anchored this idea. We are simply getting on board with what they have already begun. It’s exciting to know that others are starting to pop up around country as well!

We are praying that God will allow our conference to continue to grow, and inspire other churches to start similar conferences in different regions of the country. Imagine going to six or seven conferences in a calendar year and meeting the same pastors that it would take 4 years to meet. Like I said, it’s efficient.